Saturday, 1 September 2012

In Which There Are Swans, and Friends

Today turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. I had to go around half way to Wells, in order to get a new headlight bulb put onto my car, so it seemed reasonable to go the rest of the way and to look at the Swans currently dotted around the city.

The swans are a temporary art project, and there are 60 of them in all - I think I found around 35, which considering that I only looked in the town centre, I felt was quite good.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but if I have to narrow it down, I think my top five would be:

5.Swan About Town

I loved the art on this one, which includes scenes of Wells, including a picture of the town hall inside it's wings.

4. Hot Fuzz.
As the name suggests, this Swan is based upon Edgar Wright's film, Hot Fuzz, (and sponsored by Edgar Wright and Working Title Films). It is currently living at the Police Station..

and it carries pictures of the swan scene from the film, in a wonderfully recusrsive way..

3. The Swanster

A gorgeous dragon swan, a little let down by its name..

And I suppose, that as birds are really dinosaurs in disguise, it isn't surprising that a swan might turn out to be a dragon is disguise (or vice versa)

2. Up Before the Beak.

This is a legal Swan. How could I not love it?

I think it's the half-moon glasses which make it just perfect.

1. Guinevere - She Built a Nest of Silver Leaves
This swan is the only one which is actually in the moat of the Bishop's Palace, which is of course where swans in Wells belong.

It's not clear whether, like her real-life counterparts, she has learned to ring the gatehouse bell to demand food...

I'm glad I was in time to see so many of them (I have a Flickr set of all the ones I found) - I think that they are due to be gathered in over the next few days, after which they will be auctioned off.

After seeing the swans, I called my friend J, who lived across the road from us when we were at school, and who still lives very close to where we both grew up. We've not seen each other for almost a year, however, so it was great to sit in the sunshine and catch up.

Altogether, an excellent day, and it ended with the 1st episode of the new series of Doctor Who, which made me very happy. (I'll stay spoiler-free, for those who haven't seen it yet)